[The common theme throughout the 3rd Culture Thursday posts will be the definition of third culture from author & pastor Dave Gibbons: third culture = "the mindset and the will to love, learn, and serve in any culture, even in the midst of pain and discomfort."]
One of the reasons why I believe we should operate from a third culture mindset is that it parallels the life of Jesus. We all feel that if we offer a perspective of grace and love to the world that we are following in the footsteps of Jesus. Well, this is true to a certain extent, but it fails to acknowledge a core value that Jesus taught and lived out. That is, living out the second Greatest Commandment in the proper context. When we learn that the Greatest Commandment was to love God with everything we have, we get that pretty easily. Then, when we hear the second Greatest Commandment, which is to love our neighbor like ourselves (Mark 12:28-31) we think we get it, but we often-times fail to put two-and-two together. Yes, we are called by Jesus to love our neighbor, but just exactly who is our neighbor?
When you live in a suburban neighborhood with a bunch of middle-class people, you may think you should go knock on your next door neighbor’s door and invite him over for dinner or something. While this may be your neighbor in your neighborhood, Jesus is really calling us to go outside of our neighborhoods into the unknown areas and love people that are not like us. This is confirmed in Luke 10:25-37 NIV:
On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” He answered: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.‘” “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’ “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.“
As you probably already know, in the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry the Samaritans were a very hated and lowly people in the eyes of Jews. No one outside of Samaria gave them any attention. Therefore, a Samaritan definitely owed nothing to a Jew, nor could he ever expect to be paid back for any good deed. This was a very profound and radical illustration that Jesus delivered in the form of parable that day. When he says, “Go and do likewise.” this is his calling upon each of us as well. We are to love people we don’t know and may not even care to know — love them as we would want to be loved. To follow in the footsteps of Christ will cause us to have: the mindset and the will to love, learn, and serve in any culture, even in the midst of pain and discomfort. To follow Jesus is to experience the pain and discomfort of third culture.
